Leadership and the prison experience : the Irish Republican Movement, 1971 to the present

Abstract

The mass incarceration of Republicans in the North of Ireland was a policy decision that would have far-reaching consequences for the Republican Movement, the conflict and the peace process in Ireland. Addressing the Irish political prison experience serves as a contribution toward expanding discussion of prison resistance in general, and its impact on social movements and state policy. More specifically, this thesis traces the evolution in political thinking and resistance among the captives in three distinct periods of incarceration at Long Kesh, in order to show how their time in prison influenced the nature and quality of leadership in the Republican Movement. In so doing, it reveals how the trust born of solidarity and unity of action among prisoners enhanced leadership in the Movement by making it more diffuse. In the lead-up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, it also reveals the extent to which the prisoners assisted the Adams-McGuinness leadership in persuading the Republican community to back the peace initiative. The educational and resistance elements of their captivity coalesced to form trained politicized volunteers capable of contributing to a sustained un-armed strategy, and assisting Sinn Fein in becoming a vibrant force in the new political configuration of the North.